1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to garment supporting devices, in general, and to a suit hanger for supporting a first garment piece having shoulder portions while independently supporting a second garment piece having leg portions, in particular.
2. Description of the Related Art
Suit hangers for use at home, or for trying on suits in a Men's clothing store, have been well described in the prior art.
For example:
                a) U.S. Pat. No. 2,113,394 shows pivot connections at an upper portion of a hanger which allows for supporting more than one garment at the same time;        b) U.S. Pat. No. 2,137,268 describes a companion device, modified to receive and hold moth or other insect repellant preparations, in allowing for the support of a series of separate articles of wearing apparel in spaced relationship one-to-another;        c) U.S. Pat. No. 2,822,967 sets out a construction which allows the jacket and trousers of a suit to hang at the same height, so as not to drag on a closet floor or obstruct the view of the bottom space of a closet or wardrobe;        d) U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,200 describes a modification of a hanger design near the neck area, in providing a uniquely shaped bar for the hanging of trousers—a spring and ball arrangement being included to allow the garments to be slightly inclined when mounted as a manner of facilitating their removal and a hanging which limits their being wrinkled when hung; and        e) U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,709 shows a hanger whose configuration is particularly useful in supporting garment sets of pants and jackets for men, and also jacket and skirt sets for women.        
U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,979 points out one limitation of these types of general construction in that the jacket (or coat) must first be removed in order to remove the trousers from the horizontal bar forming part of the conventional hanger construction. As noted, the jacket (or coat) had to be first removed in order to remove the trousers from the bar, and could not then be replaced until after the trousers had been repositioned. Such arrangement was said to be obviously disadvantageous in that a person dressing normally puts the trousers on before the jacket (or coat) and reverses the sequence when undressing. The invention set out a construction in which the horizontal bar which conventionally extends between the opposing shoulder portion edges of the hanger was removed, and placed instead between a second neck portion integrally joined with the central neck portion of the original conventional hanger itself.
While U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,686,620 and 3,651,999 also show hangers designed to allow separate removal of the trousers from the jacket (or coat), each provides a construction which is different from the conventional hanger arrangement of a central neck portion, opposing shoulder portions extending from each edge of the neck portion to a predetermined point for supporting the jacket (or coat), and a generally horizontally disposed bar rigidly affixed between those predetermined points for supporting the trousers of the suit.
As will be readily appreciated, untold millions of these conventional suit hangers are in present distribution and already in use today—and it would be helpful to provide some easy adjustment to these hangers to permit trousers to be removed without the annoyance of having to first remove the jacket (or coat) from the hanger, as an alternative to having to discard these hangers for any of those modified designs. As will become clear from the description that follows, the suit hanger of the present invention is able to satisfy this objective—in a small, simple design which essentially does not take up any more room than the conventional hangers in use. As will also be seen, very few moving parts need be added, in an overall construction which is both inexpensive to modify, and exceedingly effortless in its operation.